Peter's 'Terrible but Some Good Kind of Comes Out of it' Day
by SuperAwesomePandaKitty
Summary: Set two weeks after X-Men Apocalypse, Peter's leg has finally healed. The Professor has a mission this evening but Hank doesn't want peter to go on any missions just yet as he still wants Peter to take it easy for at least a week so he's on babysitting duty. Wanda has no powers in this one, there's also a ten year age gap between them. Also, Peter's name changes halfway through.


It's been two weeks since the events in Egypt and Peter's leg had recently just finished healing. He ran laps around the mansion with joy but Hank still ordered him to take it easy so no missions until he deemed fit.

Most of the students at the Xavier mansion had went home for the weekend to visit their families but Peter had been asked by the Professor to babysit the remaining mutant babies while the newly appointed X-Men went on a training mission.

At first Peter was pissed but his Mom had called that day and begged him to look after his sixteen year old sister Wanda as she was going on a date with this nice guy she met called Will. His sister was probably old enough to stay at home by herself but since Peter was twenty-six, his mom _trusted_ him enough to take care of her...Well, the fact he would likely be taking her to the mansion where Charles would probably be for at least most of that time most likely had something to do with it.

Peter ran back into the Mansion and stopped in front of the Professor who was talking to Hank.

"Hey Charles, Hank." Peter greeted with a happy grin.

"Hello Peter, you seem a lot happier now that you can finally run again." Charles observed with a smile of his own.

"Hey, just because you can run again doesn't mean you can overdo it." Hank told him off worriedly.

"I _am_ taking it easy, so um...I'll be back in like twenty minutes, my mom wants me to babysit Wanda tonight too so I'm just gonna run home and bring her here if that's okay." Peter explained, directing the second part to Charles.

"Your house is like two hours away Peter." Hank points out with a disapproving look.

"Hey, I could make it there in five minutes but for you I'm making it ten to grab my sis and running here." Peter said defensively.

Hank merely sighed and held back a laugh when Peter threw him his best innocent look.

"Okay Peter, please go easy on your leg." Charles told him with a fond smile.

Jean, Scott, Kurt and Ororo walked into the hallway and Peter grinned at them.

"See you soon guys." Peter said while adjusted his goggles on his face, he gave them a salute and cheered happily as he sped out the door.

"Bye Peter!" They collectively called out to him as they continued on to the living room, waving to the Professor and Hank as they passed.

Hank shook his head with an exasperated sigh and Charles laughed at his concerned face. "He's going to be the death of me." Hank groaned, rubbing his temples.

"Come on Hank, think of what you would do if you had super speed and this is the first time you've ever been forced to stay still for two long weeks." Charles replied fondly.

"Well you would at least think he would slow himself down _just a little_ in case he hurts himself again." Hank complained.

"We were that age once Hank, remember that." Charles replied warmly with a smirk. "Now come on, we've got a training mission to prepare for." He added as he gestured for his friend to walk with him.

^/^

Peter felt free as the wind flowed around him when he ran through the extremely slow traffic (they would normally appear to have stopped at his usual speed but he _did_ tell Hank he would slow down). His favourite thing about his power was the excitement and the exhilaration of feeling lighter than air as he moved, everyone else travelled in extreme slow motion but this was his world and no one could match his speed, well at least no one he's ever met.

Being cooped up in the mansion wasn't so bad; Magda and Wanda had come to visit a few times when he couldn't just run home whenever he wanted but not being able to move at his own speed nearly killed him inside. Everything was just so _slow_ and although he had a lot of patience for the pace everyone else travelled, sometimes he just couldn't help but get annoyed when things weren't fast enough.

He ran into the cul-de-sac his mother lived in and stopped just outside the front door as he didn't want to freak his mom's date out if he was in the house.

"Mom?" He called out as he slowly walked in.

"Peter?" Magda said loudly, he could sense that there was something off about her voice and he ran down the hall and into the kitchen. He froze at the sight of his sixteen year old sister; she was on her knees at the end of another hallway, a gun pressed into her temple as she looked at him with tears glistening in her eyes.

"Hello Peter." A familiar voice greeted him from the living room; he tried to keep himself emotionless as he turned to see his mother in the same position. Peter ran towards his mother but he felt an electric shock go through his body as he was knocked back by some kind of invisible shield.

"Tut tut Peter." William Stryker gloated with a snake-like grin as he gripped Magda's hair tighter and she trembled with pain and fear. "You think I don't know how fast you can run? Of course I had to come up with something that could stop even you."

"Let them go." He said with a calm voice, Magda saw his eyes darkening as he tried to play off his anger and fear with a smile.

"It's good to see you again Peter." Stryker replied with a smirk, he had his gun pressed firmly into Magda's temple and Peter worked his brain overtime as he tried to think of a solution.

"I said let them go." Peter demanded a bit louder, he could feel his nerves flowing through his body and he could barely stop himself from vibrating with anxiety and rage.

"Sorry Peter, I can't you see, we need you. You may be fast enough to stop one bullet, but can you stop two?" Stryker asked with a menacing tone, pressing lightly on the trigger.

"Peter, you get Wanda first okay." Magda told him with tears in her eyes.

He turned his head to the right and saw his sister whimpering and crying as she looked back at him.

"It's gonna be okay Wanda, I promise." Peter called to her with an encouraging smile.

"Either way, if you manage to find a way past the barriers to save one, the other will definitely die. However, both may be spared if you give yourself up now." Stryker said offhandedly, his eyes gleamed with victory and Peter wanted to punch that self-satisfied smirk off his face. He'd been thinking over and over for a solution to how he could get passed the invisible barriers so he could get to both of them on time, the guns were too close to his family's heads and there would be no way he could carry them both to a safe distance at the same time.

"Peter, don't you dare!" His mother shouted when she saw his defeated expression.

"I can't just let you die Mom, you and Wanda are too far away from each other for me to save both of you, not when the bullets are this close to your heads." Peter replied with a sad smile. He huffed and met Stryker's victorious gaze determinedly. "What do you want me to do?"

"You give yourself over to us; you'll be handcuffed and drugged so I can guarantee that you won't try to run away." Stryker replied emotionlessly, he couldn't care less about Peter or his family; there were other mutants out there he could experiment on and use. He would be more than willing to kill this family mercilessly if Peter didn't do what he was told.

Peter considered his options, he could just run out and run back as fast as he could now, barrier or no barrier and knock the guy out that has Wanda and leave her outside and come back before Stryker could tell that he'd moved but there could be more men outside and he couldn't risk it. He knew this was a trap, it had trap written all over it but this was his family, his very _human_ family we're talking about and he couldn't just let them die. He'd rather hand himself over to this lunatic than live with the knowledge that he could have saved them both. He mulled this over for what felt like several long minutes to him but merely seconds to everyone else.

"How do I know you'll let them go? They're human; they have nothing to do with this." Peter asked as he schooled his expression to appear emotionless, not wanting Stryker to know he was terrified.

"You don't but if you do everything I say; they will live." Stryker shrugged impassively.

"Peter please don't do this, take Wanda and go now." Magda pleaded with him desperately.

"Mom I'm doing it. I won't let you or Wanda die...not because of me. Now, when they let you go..." When he said that he looked at Stryker directly, expecting him to keep his end of the deal. "Go to Grandpa's and don't tell anyone what happened." Peter said in a tone that meant there were to be no arguments. He held out his wrists in a 'go on, handcuff me' gesture.

"You win, now let them go."

"Wise choice Peter." Stryker said as he made a hand signal towards the window and 4 Men walked in with a large pair of metal restraints for his hands which had a chain down to his legs to stop him from running. He sighed inwardly at the irony that the one person who could have saved him from these doesn't really know or care all that much about him. Stryker's grip on his mom never loosened and Peter knew he couldn't do anything, he let them restrain him, his anger building inside of him at the fact that this was how easy he was being captured.

"Place the sedative needle in his neck but don't press." Stryker ordered one of the men.

Peter hissed when the needle pierced his skin and his mom's face was wet with the crying she had been doing at seeing her son like this but she had a job to do and she couldn't cause a scene.

"Be warned, there are snipers surrounding the building too, if you try to escape; your family won't survive I promise you." Stryker said coldly as he lifted a remote from his pocket and turned off the barrier. He let Magda and Wanda go, his sister ran straight into her mother's arms as she had thought they had been their last moments.

"Please don't hurt him." Wanda cried but Magda kept silent and tightened her hold on her daughter as she backed away from the men.

"Wanda, don't worry it'll all be okay." He told her with a warm smile as the injection was inserted into his system and everything went black. The last thing he saw was the terrified look on his mother's face.

^/^

Raven sighed tiredly as she drove through those familiar gates up to the mansion she had spent her childhood in. She had spent the past two days investigating the disappearances of mutants that had been happening recently and had zero luck finding out where they were.

She exited the car and walked through the doors quietly.

"Raven, you're back?" Hank greeted with a shy smile when she entered the hallway towards Charles's office.

"Yeah," she sighed. "It's been a long two days." She added with a tired smile of her own.

"Charles is in the living room with some of the students, apparently Jubilee broke the TV... _again_ and there was a huge fight." Hank explained with an exasperated expression.

She huffed out a laugh. "Kids." Raven said fondly as she walked side by side with Hank.

The living room was in pandemonium; Jubilee was hiding behind Charles as many of the other children were banded together in a lynch mob shouting at her. Charles was trying to keep everyone calm and obviously didn't want to use his powers to control the children as he gave Raven a 'help me' look.

"Hey, that's enough!" Raven shouted and the din quietened as everyone froze to look at her.

"Thank you Raven." Charles said with a relieved sigh. "Now, Hank will fix the television and Jubilee, I know you can't control your powers very well but please do not break it again." He told her with a patient smile.

"Sorry Professor, the remote wasn't working and I only wanted to change the channel on the TV." Jubilee said guiltily.

"It's quite alright just please don't do it again." He replied politely. "Now, if you would excuse me." He added to rest of the kids as he followed Raven out of the room.

"What did you find?" Charles asked her when he knew there was no chance of anyone listening in.

Raven sighed dejectedly. "Not a lot, just that the families never reported them going missing and they just seemed to vanish."

"Yes well that is unfortunate, what about the families? Do they just go on as normal or?" Charles asked curiously.

"Some go into hiding; others live out their day to day life pretending that everything is fine." Raven said with an aggravated pout.

They entered Charles's office and Raven sat down on the arm chair. Raven had noticed Charles had kept looking at his watch every so often and had let it go but now they truly were in private, she couldn't hold back.

"Alright Charles, what's going on?" Raven asked with a knowing look.

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Charles asked innocently.

"Come on Charles, you're my brother and you've been checking your watch since I got in." Raven said and crossed her arms.

Sighing, Charles gave her an affirming nod. "Well, I just can't help but notice that it's been over two hours since Peter left and he said he'd be twenty minutes, his leg _is_ only after recovering but still." He explained with a concerned look at his watch again.

"Why did he leave?" Raven asked, sitting forward in her seat.

"Well most of the children went home to their families for the weekend but as some of the other children don't have families to go home to, they're staying here. Peter was supposed to be looking after the remaining children while we went out on a training mission but his mother has a date tonight so he went home to collect his younger sister and bring her here. She may be sixteen but their mother still wanted Peter to look after her." Charles finished with another anxious look at his watch.

Raven bit her lip in thought, she had grown quite fond of the speedster as he was always cracking jokes but he still managed to have a serious side that he rarely let anyone see. He probably just pushed his newly healed leg too far and had to walk, she could picture his annoyed expression already at how slow he would have to travel and she smirked to herself fondly.

Her smile fell when Hank ran in.

"I'm sorry professor but this couldn't wait." Hank said quickly as he ushered in Magda and Wanda Maximoff, both of them looked like they had been sobbing the entire journey.

"What's happened?" Charles asked urgently.

"Peter's been taken." Magda sobbed. "I met this guy called Will at a bar a few nights ago and things were going great, he asked me about my life and my kids and stuff. He was supposed to come over and meet me before we went out but he had his men hold a gun to Wanda and myself at opposite ends of the house with electric barriers so Peter couldn't get to both of us on time, he gave himself up for us". Magda cried as she held onto Wanda for dear life like someone would try and steal her other child away from her.

Raven froze. "Will who?" She asked quietly, like she was afraid of the answer.

"Will Stryker. I just met him at a bar." She repeated desperately. "I didn't think he would kidnap my son! He let me and Wanda go only after Peter let them sedate him but he said if we told anyone he would come back for us." Magda explained anxiously. "Peter told me that if anything ever happened to him that I should come here and the code phrase was ' _go to_ Grandpa's' and I didn't think they would let us go but once they had Peter, they didn't care about us. I came here as fast as I could and now they have my son." She wailed quietly.

"Listen to me Ms Maximoff, we will do everything in our power to bring Peter back safely, please know that while you are here, no harm shall come to either of you." Charles assured her.

"Please bring my brother home." Wanda said quietly.

"We will." Raven said determinedly.

"Hank, show them where the guestroom is and you are both welcome to stay here as long as you like." Charles said as he moved out of his office to go towards the elevator, Raven fell into step beside him.

"We need Erik to help us." Raven said emotionlessly, her entire body was stiff as she worried over her friend in the hands of Stryker.

"I assure you Raven; we are perfectly fine without him." Charles replied with a smile and stubborn eyes.

"No Charles, we need him." Raven insisted determinedly.

"Why?" Charles asked. "We've done perfectly well without him before and yes, he helped rebuild the house but it's not like he has to help us on every mission."

"Just trust me on this Charles, this is William Stryker we're talking about here, he kidnaps mutants and tortures them for whatever purpose he likes." Raven replied bitterly.

"I know that Raven, I am not underestimating Stryker by any means but Erik's been away for 2 weeks doing whatever it is that he does and he might not want to help out." Charles explained to her.

"I don't care, he has to help. Don't you dare read my mind to find out why or I will walk out that door and never come back." Raven threatened with a glare.

Charles looked at her to try and read her face. "Fine but you get to explain yourself to him." Charles said with a smirk knowing full well that if Erik is busy, he'll be pissed as all hell at having his mind tracked by Cerebro.

He placed the Helmet on his head and searched for Peter, his breathing kicked up as he searched and searched but couldn't sense him anywhere, the same as the other missing mutants he had spent the last two weeks trying to find.

"What's wrong?" Raven asked worriedly.

"He's not anywhere Raven, I can't find him anywhere...It's the same as the others." Charles explained anxiously.

"They obviously have something that hides them from trackers and even you." Raven said quickly, refusing to believe anything different.

"It is possible for them to hide the mutants from Cerebro but it is still unnerving." Charles replied as he began to search for Erik then and found him in a small house in Georgia.

"...Charles? What are you doing in my head?" Erik asked grumpily, clearly unimpressed by Charles using this form of communication.

"I'm sorry old friend but this couldn't wait." Charles explained guiltily.

"Fine Charles, what do you want?" Erik replied, clearly hinting that Charles should hurry up so he could get out of his head.

"Alright well, there's been a number of cases within the past two weeks of mutants going missing but their families either go into hiding or just act as if everything is normal, on top of that, Peter has been taken by William Stryker and I'm afraid we'll need your help on this one." Charles explained.

Erik's thoughts turned confused for a moment and then anger surged around Stryker's name. "I thought you and your X-Men could handle these things, you've been training them for events such as these I assume?" Erik replied smugly, secretly glad Charles needed him as he had been feeling lost without a purpose after his wife and daughter died.

"They've had two weeks of training Erik, and Stryker is not your average adversary. Besides, it was upon Raven's insistence that you should be called in." Charles snapped.

"Raven? Why does she think that? I thought I would be the last person she'd think to ask for help." Erik replied with a confused tone.

"She won't tell me and I am forbidden from reading her mind to find out, she'll only tell you. She says it's important and you have to be there." Charles relayed the message that Raven was whispering to him.

"Fine, I'll be there in a few hours." Erik sighed as he sat up and gathered his things. "And Charles?" He asked.

"Yes Erik?"

"Stay out of my head." Erik was only half-joking but Charles smiled and cut off the connection anyway as he informed Raven that Erik was on his way.

^/^

Peter's brain kick-started at two things: One, his limbs were strapped down to a metal table and two, he was alone. He glanced around groggily; he couldn't see anything but the dirt and grime that covered the walls and were those blood stains? This place really creeped him the fuck out, he tried pulling uselessly at the metal straps and gave up with a frustrated sigh.

The door opened loudly as Stryker walked in and it shut abruptly with a loud noise as it was locked.

"Hello again Peter, comfortable?" Stryker asked smugly.

"Peachy." Peter deadpanned; he wished he could punch that damn smile of the douchebag's face.

"Good, we do hope you enjoy your stay while it lasts." Stryker said cheerfully.

Peter stayed quiet as he watched Stryker move around the room, gathering tools and equipment to set beside the table just out of his reach.

"So, the plan of action today is you're going to tell me what I want to know and if you don't; I'm going to hurt you. I won't be killing you just yet don't worry." He informed Peter as if he was discussing the weather.

"Well that's unfortunate and here I was thinking it was going to be a hotel and spa." Peter quipped in his best bored voice, he wasn't going to talk, they could hurt him all they wanted but he'd never want anyone to be hurt because of him.

Stryker narrowed his eyes. "Joke all you like now but you won't be laughing very soon." He promised, voice thick with venom as he lifted a scalpel out of the box of tools.

Peter smiled at Stryker smugly. "Bring it bitch." He said sarcastically, oh he was terrified but not once would he break. He had his family to think of and he'd rather suffer than see any harm come to them.

"Tell us about the telepath." Stryker demanded, ignoring Peter's taunt.

"Uh...No." Peter answered, he gritted his teeth as he felt pain flash through him as the scalpel was cutting into his arm.

"Let's try this again." Stryker said calmly, he lifted the scalpel and hovered over his other arm. "Tell us about the telepath."

"Get fucked." Peter said with a glare.

Stryker stabbed the flesh of Peter's arm and twisted the blade this way and that so Peter couldn't hold in his gasps of pain.

"How was he able to communicate with every person in the world?!" Stryker asked angrily.

"Dunno." Peter huffed out in an amused tone.

Stryker punched Peter in the face and lifted the Scalpel to slowly dig the scalpel into Peter's arm, everything was in slow motion and Peter could feel every movement of the blade as it passed through his skin

"Okay okay! I'll tell you about the telepath, Jesus!" Peter shouted and the knife was removed as Stryker smugly leaned over him to look at his face. "So uh...I hear he can read minds." Peter said with a smirk and he laughed at Stryker's angry expression as he backed away to his toolbox.

"One way or another Peter, I'm going to break you." Stryker warned as he pulled out a syringe and injected it into Peter's neck.

Peter laughed until he blacked out but his mind had been racing for a long time as to what he was going to do as he knew he wouldn't be able to last forever.

^/^

Erik drove as fast as he could in the car he had 'borrowed', he knew it would be only a matter of time before Stryker would get bored of torturing and experimenting. There was something about the silver haired man that he just couldn't help but feel fond of, he never said it but he was glad the speedster and Raven had tried to talk him down from practically destroying the world.

He pulled up the driveway towards the familiar mansion and got out quickly before making his way through the main doors. Charles and Raven were already there to greet him, he had been driving for six hours after Charles had contacted him to get there and he could feel the exhaustion creeping up on him.

"Erik, it's good to see you." Charles greeted with a fond smile.

"It's good to see you old friend." Erik replied, he looked at Raven who had a serious expression on her face. "It's good to see you too Raven."

"Erik, we need to talk." Raven said urgently. "In Private." She added when Charles looked at them both curiously, Erik could see the flicker of hurt that flashed over Charles's face but ignored it as he nodded to her.

"You can use my office if you'd like, I need to go check on the children anyway." Charles added with a polite smile that couldn't quite reach his eyes and moved away towards the living area.

"Let's go." Raven said quickly, trying to usher Erik away before Peter's mother could see him.

Erik stayed silent, his curiosity could wait until there would be no chance of anyone eavesdropping on the conversation but he couldn't help but walk faster in his haste to find out what Raven wanted to tell him.

Raven closed the door behind them, she gestured for Erik to sit down while she stood up and paced by the door.

"Peter's going to kill me for this." She said quietly, she wasn't afraid of the speedster but she knew he'd be upset about her disclosing his secret to the one person he was too afraid to tell.

"Spit it out Raven." Erik told her impatiently.

"Look Erik, you might not believe me but it's true and I'm sorry you had to find out this way." Raven began hesitantly, Erik knew she was stalling but he stayed quiet to let her gather her thoughts. "Peter is your son." She said with determined eyes.

Erik sat back in his chair in shock, it was impossible. He would have known if he had another child wouldn't he? "How do you know that?"

"Peter told me, he was just too afraid to tell you." Raven replied quietly. "He only knows because his mother told him and she's here Erik, he told her that if anything ever happened to him to come here."

"What's her name?" Erik asked her, barely able to breathe because he might actually have a son.

"Magda Maximoff." Raven answered with a concerned look.

Erik's face fell, he looked down at his hands in thought. He was married to her once, they had had a daughter once, Anya but she died and he killed the men responsible for her death. Magda fled from him and he never saw her again, could she have been pregnant when she turned from him?

"Where is she?" Erik asked quietly.

"She's in the living room with the other kids, she has another daughter; Wanda, she's sixteen but she's human. Stryker had both of them at opposite ends of the room behind electric barriers with guns to their heads, Peter handed himself over because he didn't want to risk running to save one in case he wasn't fast enough to save the other." Raven replied, her hands were held into fists as she seethed with rage at how Stryker was able to prey on mutants by using their families.

"I must speak with her Raven. She may hate me but if he is my son, she never told me and he could be hurt or worse." Erik said angrily, standing to make his way out the door.

"Okay but I'm coming too." Raven answered, hurrying to catch up with Erik who marched down towards the living area.

Erik's rage disappeared the moment their eyes met, her eyes widened in fear and her hand went towards her necklace. "Magda." He greeted calmly.

Charles sensed the tension immediately and told all the children, including Wanda, to go outside. "Ms Maximoff, you are perfectly safe here, that has not changed I promise." He rushed to reassure her.

"Erik, what are you doing here?" Magda asked quietly, her voice was shaky but she tried to stay calm.

"Well, I was called in to help save Peter and any other mutants Stryker has taken...I have also just been informed that Peter is my son, is that true?" Charles's eyes widened as he looked at Magda in shock, Erik's intense eyes bored into her, begging her to tell him the truth.

"I...Yes it is. I'm uh...I'm sorry I didn't tell you." Magda answered, looking down at her feet in shame.

"He is twenty-six years old now. Twenty-six years you have kept him from me and you never tried to contact me once." Erik shouted angrily.

"I was never going to tell you Erik! I won't lie about that. When Anya died and you killed those men...I found out I was pregnant after I had fled from you, I vowed never to tell Pietro who you were but then his powers started showing, he thought he was the only one so I told him a little bit about what you could do. Then we saw you on the TV threatening the president after he broke you out of the Pentagon and I couldn't keep it a secret any longer but all he had to do was watch the television, read a newspaper and see you for the monster you truly are!" Magda shouted frantically, tears were flowing down her face and at first Erik's rage surged within him and it took all his self control not to use his powers and attack her but as soon as she mentioned threatening the president, his rage turned into defeat. Of course his son would be too afraid to tell him, he probably thought he was a monster too.

Magda calmed herself down and looked at the defeated expression on his face and for a moment her rage and fear vanished. She knew Peter wouldn't like her saying anything to Erik about it, she couldn't stop Peter from wanting a relationship with him and she knew Peter would never forgive her if she completely destroyed any chance they had.

"But." She finally whispered and Erik slowly looked up at her. "He couldn't be persuaded; his mind works just as fast as he does and sometimes he gets bored of everyone else going so slow. He can overthink within a matter of seconds and his decision would be made; he wanted to find you. It had been ten years since he last saw you and you had went off the grid, he pretended he wasn't watching you on the TV; that he was ' _really_ ' playing his videogames but I always knew better. When you all went to Egypt and he broke his leg, he told me he was going to tell you then but he just couldn't bring himself to do it." Magda explained softly, more tears started to form in her eyes as she worried about her son.

Erik stayed quiet, despite all the things he had done, did Peter still want him to know? He thought over to the moment Raven and Peter were trying to talk him down.

" _And you?"_

" _I'm your..." Erik watched as an anxious expression formed on his face. "I'm here for my family too."_

Peter was talking about him? It all made sense now, how Peter avoided talking to him when they got back to the mansion but would always be watching him like he had something to say.

"When we get Peter out, you will not stop me from talking to him." Erik told her matter of factly.

"Erik...I couldn't stop Peter from doing what he wants even if I wanted to." Magda replied sadly.

"Now that's settled, we need to find out where Stryker has Peter." Charles interjected before anything else could be said, both Erik and Magda turned to look at Charles like they had forgotten he was even there.

"Professor?" Jean called as she reluctantly entered the room.

"Yes Jean?" Charles asked with a warm smile.

"Scott, Kurt and I were with them when Hank, Raven, Moira and Peter were taken to the base. You could probably read our minds and find out where it is." Jean suggested, she was also worried about Peter as he had become the big brother figure to them and kept making them laugh. Scott and Kurt slowly made their way around the corner with guilty faces; they had obviously been eavesdropping on the conversation and wanted to help.

Each of them approached Charles and let him go through their memories, he was able to track the helicopters movements towards Canada and mapped it out in his mind.

"Thank you everyone, I now have a possible location." He touched his fingers to his temple before smiling. "Hank's on his way now, he was in the lab sorting out the new and improved jet." Charles informed them.

"Are you sure that's where he is Charles? They may have relocated." Erik said with a concerned expression on his face.

"We don't know for certain that he is there but wherever he is, it has a field that blocks my telepathy so I can't contact him and find out." Charles told his friend quietly, not wanting anyone else to hear them. "We still have to try though; they may have kept the base and upped their security. After all, it's only been two weeks since everyone escaped and if there's a connection to the missing mutants then they wouldn't have had time to relocate." Charles added thoughtfully.

"Well then let's go." Erik replied instantly. "I don't want him there any longer, Stryker could be bored already." He added in a quieter tone as he noticed Magda looking at him.

Charles nodded swiftly and turned towards his X-Men. "Let's go."

Raven nodded eagerly, she wanted to get there as fast as possible, she only hoped Peter wouldn't be too angry with her when he made it home safe.

^/^

Peter woke up bleary eyed and slow, he was relocated in a metal chair this time with his hands and feet held to it with heavy iron grips. He raised his eyes only to be met with Stryker's cocky smirk as he lightly slapped Peter's face to wake him up.

"Rise and Shine, this time you're gonna tell me everything I need to know and if you don't I'm gonna keep hitting you until you do." Stryker told him menacingly, Peter's only response was to spit at him and grin.

Stryker's smile dropped off his face and he punched Peter hard on the face, Peter's reflexes were slow because of the drugs so he couldn't dodge the attack fast enough.

"Now, what I want to know is how the telepath was able to broadcast his thoughts to every mind in the world." Stryker said matter of factly, when Peter stayed quiet he was punched in the stomach and he breathed out heavily in pain.

Peter stubbornly remained quiet and let Stryker punch him on the face repeatedly before he let out all at once. "I actually don't know the answer to that asswipe!" Stryker's hand froze as he looked at his face thoughtfully.

"Hmmm, I don't know if I believe you. Fine, we'll start with something else. Tell me about Magneto." Stryker ordered.

Peter froze for a moment, did Stryker know? He couldn't right? Unless his mother told him when they met but Peter didn't think Magda would want anyone to know she used to be married to him. His real name was Pietro but Magda had always told him to say his name was Peter so no one would find out about his powers and because of the Romani name, some people in their neighbourhood had assumed that all Romani Gypsies were mutants. She also never wanted anyone to find out who his father was, even when she refused to tell Peter himself.

"So I hear he controls metal, almost like...a magnet." Peter suggested with a wheezy laugh, he received two punches in the stomach and a bruising eye for that, but in his book it was worth it.

"Don't get smart with me boy it doesn't suit you." Stryker growled at Peter's indifferent shrug. "You asked for it." He threatened as he walked off to get something from his box. Peter needed to find a way to get these drugs out of his system, medication doesn't normally work on Peter for long but when he uses his powers it's a considerably less amount of time. He needed to be able to vibrate his body, even just a little bit so his reflexes would be faster but with Sergeant Dickhead watching his every move; it was proving to be difficult.

Peter screamed when he felt electricity light up his every sense, it could only have been a few seconds but god it felt like it lasted forever. This would forever be the one thing he hated about his mutation.

His breathing was ragged when the electricity stopped, he stared at his knees as his brain tried to figure out what to do, another few of those jolts and he won't be able to cope. Stryker slapped his face and held his chin to make Peter look at him.

"I swear to God Mutant, if you don't start cooperating, I _will_ kill you. I've already got blood samples, tissue; I've got everything I need from you." Stryker threatened. Peter looked straight ahead of him when Stryker let go of his face; he could see the table they had held him on and his eyes widened at the blood he could see on it, he quickly scanned himself and noticed he had cuts and needle marks on his arms.

"So what's it gonna be Peter?" Stryker asked him, his hand resting lazily on the switch that would electrocute him.

Peter knew, he knew that no matter what he told him, Stryker would kill him in the end so what would be the point in him betraying the people he loves if they're going to kill him anyway? His mind was made up.

"I'll tell you about your favourite mutant, the blue one." Peter told him with bright eyes.

"The one they call Mistique?" Stryker asked curiously, his interest was clearly peaked.

"Yup." Pete said while putting extra emphasis on the 'p'.

"Well? Hurry up then." Stryker said with eager eyes.

"When we were in Egypt right? This guy was totally gonna kill me but in walks one of his minions, he wanted her to cut my throat with her katana but she totally got him instead and next thing I knew, she just turned blue! Just like that! Shocking I know." Peter told him like he was a gossiping hairdresser, his smirk back in full swing. "You know? I think she was a shapeshifter." He added conversationally. Peter braced himself and had a few long seconds of dread as time slowed down and he felt every bolt for what felt like hours.

He screamed and screamed but things went back to a regular pace when the electricity was turned off, Stryker was standing behind him pointing a plastic gun towards his head. Peter looked up to see Raven and the angry face of his father who was staring at the blood on the table with disgust. The metal door had been ripped off its hinges and the table began vibrating slightly when Erik's eyes finally lifted to scan his bruised and bloody face.

"I'm so glad I carry a plastic gun on principal." Stryker announced to the room. "Be warned, make another move and I will kill him." He added as he glared at Erik.

Raven's eyes scanned over Peter in concern, she noticed his body was blurring subtly as he was trying to get the remaining drugs to burn out of his system.

"Let him go Stryker, this won't end well for you." Erik promised coldly, the metal in the room began to move with his rage as Stryker smirked fearlessly at Erik's statement.

"Too late." Stryker said as he noticed a sharp piece of metal coming for him, he pulled the trigger and Peter nearly smashed his face into his knees as he ducked so fast. Both Erik and Raven had shouted out for him but their voices sounded slow as he felt the bullet travel through his hair faster than usual to the wall beside his head.

In Erik's shock the piece of metal had dropped to the ground as he thought he had lost his son before they could even talk about it. Stryker had pointed his gun directly at Erik's chest with a victorious smile and Erik quickly used his powers to release the restraints on Peter. Time slowed down again as Peter noticed two fast bullets heading towards Raven and Erik and he ran. He didn't have time to redirect both bullets so Raven barely had time to blink as she was sent crashing into the wall.

She turned her head quickly as she noticed Erik on the opposite wall but in the same split second, both Peter and Stryker dropped to their knees groaning in pain.

"Peter!" Erik called out to him, trying to move closer to him. Peter wasn't looking at either of them, he was clutching his bleeding shoulder and glaring at Stryker who was trying to pluck a scalpel, that had been on the table, out of his leg as Peter had thrown it at him before the bullet entered his shoulder when he was pushing his father out of the line of fire.

Peter was vibrating again, running on nothing but the pain and adrenaline rushing through him. Raven had never seen him look so angry before, Stryker finally pulled the blade out of his leg with a shout and he aimed the gun again and fired.

Time slowed again at a better pace and Peter was gone.

He ran forward so fast filled with rage and anxiety, he grabbed the slow-moving rubber bullet from the air and threw it to the side so hard, it smashed itself into the wall. The gun could barely be seen as it was thrown across the room and Erik and Raven could only observe in amazement as Stryker's body flew around like a rag doll. The only sounds in the room that could be heard were Peter's shouts of anger and pain, Stryker's face became progressively bloodier as the seconds ticked by and Raven knew Peter would never forgive himself if he killed someone, even someone like Stryker.

"Peter!" Raven called out to him but he was moving too fast for her to even see him.

"Peter!" Erik tried then but still Stryker's body flew around. " _Pietro_ stop!" Erik shouted and just like that Stryker dropped to the ground, motionless except for his slow breathing.

Peter was frozen, one arm raised as if to throw another punch, his breathing ragged. He slowly lowered his arm and turned to face them, his eyes were wide as he avoided meeting their concerned gazes and looked at his bloody hands as he dropped to his knees.

Erik and Raven rushed to catch him but Erik got to him first, he placed his hand on Peter's good shoulder and when Peter finally raised his head to meet his father's eyes, Erik pulled him into a hug.

Raven backed off a little to let them have their moment as Peter looked stunned, he never would have believed that this man, who probably didn't even know he was his son, was openly hugging him. Raven smiled then when Peter hugged back, his shoulders shaking a little with repressed emotions.

"I'm sorry Peter." Erik told him softly, he pulled back to meet the watery eyes of the normally comedic speedster.

"It's okay, I mean I'm sure you've probably had worse." Peter sniffed as he tried to hold back everything he was feeling, he froze again when he remembered that Erik had called him by his real name.

"What is it?" Erik asked in concern as he noticed Peter's shocked expression.

"How do you know my name? I've never told anyone, at least no one back at the school." Peter asked him curiously, Erik observed the fear in Peter's eyes and he sighed sadly.

"Your mother told me." Erik answered hesitantly, he wanted to look away but he knew he had to face the situation head on.

"Oh..." Peter said, his shoulders slumped slightly. "So...you know." He added and looked down at his hands again.

"Your mother never told me about you, if I had known about you Peter I would have been there for you." Erik explained. Peter stayed silent as he thought everything over, he felt guilty because he never had his chance to tell Erik himself and a part of him was scared that he never would have.

"I'm sorry you didn't feel like you could tell me." Erik added to try and coax him to speak.

"It's okay..." Peter said in a quiet voice. "Didn't think you would want to know me anyway, especially after you lost your family." He added sadly, refusing to meet Erik's gaze.

Erik held back the emotions that flooded within him at the mention of his family as it was still a raw wound he never thought he could recover from. Images of Nina's crying face and Peter screaming in pain when En Sabah Nur broke his leg flashed behind his eyes and he knew he never wanted to see his children suffer again.

He gestured in Peter's eyeline to get him to look at him and when he finally met Erik's eyes he gave his son a soft smile, his eyes looked a lot like Nina's.

"If you want to...I would like to get to know you, it's entirely your decision but I would like to know my son." Erik said honestly, Peter nodded with a soft shrug and surreptitiously wiped at his eyes.

"Call me Pietro; I avoided using that name because mom told me it would make people think I was a mutant especially with the Romani background and the silver hair...I'm not afraid anymore." _Pietro_ said with a small smile.

Erik's blood boiled when he thought about his son hiding himself away from the world in case someone would find out he was a mutant but he calmed down when he saw Pietro's almost relieved smile at being able to be himself.

"Come on guys, let's go home." Raven told them with a smile.

Pietro grinned at her and made to stand up but his energy was zapped and he fell back down so Erik helped him stand.

"Thanks." Pietro said gratefully, his shoulder started to hurt like a bitch and he guessed the adrenaline was burning off quicker than he would have liked. He slowly moved towards Raven and pulled her into a one-armed hug, she held her friend tightly and put his good arm around her shoulder as they walked out of the room.

"Wait...What about captain douchenozzle back there?" Pietro asked gesturing to the room they had just vacated. Erik followed awkwardly behind them, studiously trying to ignore the blood in the room to keep himself from killing Stryker while he was lying unconscious on the floor.

"Charles will handle it, he and the rest of the X-Men are working on freeing the other mutants, deleting all evidence and wiping the memories of everyone here, it's Charles's preferred method to killing or destroying the place." Raven replied as they slowly made their way down the corridor.

Pietro could feel the exhaustion taking its toll and the bullet wound wasn't helping anything, he knew he would heal faster if he was able to sleep for a while, he wouldn't heal completely but his bruises would at least be less jarring.

"Can we stop for like ten seconds? That's all I need." Pietro asked. Raven and Erik eyed each other worriedly and Pietro sighed exasperatedly. "I'm fine, I just need to stop for a bit, ten seconds is like ten minutes for me." He added. Raven nodded suspiciously and Pietro slowly slid himself down a wall to sit down, time slowed as he began poking around at the bullet wound in his shoulder. He gritted his teeth and quickly dug his fingers into the wound and pulled the bullet out with a pained shout, he laughed a little as he looked up and saw Erik and Raven's expressions turning to disapproval in slow motion when they noticed the bloody bullet on the floor. Pietro ripped a piece of his shirt to tie around the wound to stop himself from bleeding out and pushed himself off the floor as he stood up.

"Don't do that again you idiot! You could probably make it worse!" Raven shouted at him, her eyes promising pain if he tried something like that ever again.

"I'm sorry." Pietro said with his hands up in a placating gesture. "It _was_ slowing me down though." Pietro explained to her with a slight smirk. He noticed Erik had frozen and stared at the blood on the bullet and then his hands, Pietro hid his bloody hands behind his back and gave Erik a nervous smile as he tried to subtly rub them onto his clothes.

"I'm okay..." Pietro said quietly, part of him didn't think he'd ever be okay psychologically after the ordeal but he knew, physically at least, he would heal.

Erik didn't look convinced but his hardened expression softened at Pietro's look.

"Okay, you can talk later." Raven said in an amused tone. "We need to go, Charles said they've rescued all the other mutants, Hank wants to take a look at Pietro as soon as we get back to the mansion." Raven added giving Pietro a mischievous smirk.

Pietro's shoulders slumped. "God, he's such a mother hen." He complained lightly, secretly glad the older mutant worried so much about him. Despite his dread about being looked over, a weight felt like it had been lifted when Raven had used his real name, he was tired of feeling like he had something to hide from his friends when it came to his name.

"Stop complaining, you know it's for your own good." Raven told him off with a light smack to the back of his head.

"Hey! What did I ever do to you?" Pietro cried overdramatically as he rubbed his head.

"Oh grow up, I barely touched you." Raven said shaking her head fondly, she reached over to lift Pietro's good arm over her shoulder again and helped him walk.

"So..." Pietro started awkwardly as he turned his head to Erik. "How bad do I look?" He asked with a humourless smirk.

"Do you mean bad as in the extensive bruising and cuts to your face including the blood that literally is on every piece of your clothing or aesthetically?" Erik asked grimly.

"That bad huh?" Pietro said ruefully with his head down. "My mom's gonna freak." He added quietly, his head shot up quickly. "She's okay isn't she? Her and Wanda got away didn't they?!" He shouted frantically.

"They are perfectly fine Peter." Charles called out to him as they turned the corner, his smile quickly fell when he saw Pietro's face. "Peter! Are you alright?!"

Pietro waved when he heard the calls of his name and saw the concerned faces of his friends in front of the new and improved Jet.

"I'm fine." He told them, he eased his arm out of Raven's grip and tried to stand on his own with a grin on his face.

"Oh you wish to be called Pietro now?" Charles asked him with a smile after a shared look with Erik.

"That's my real name." Pietro explained.

Kurt appeared in front of him in a puff of smoke and he pulled the speedster into a hug before both of them appeared in front Hank inside the Jet.

"Sup Hank?" Pietro said grumpily when he realised what Kurt had done. "Also Kurt, what the fresh hell was that? I thought you were giving me a hug dude." He said with a feigned look of hurt.

"I vas...but Hank asked me to take you straight to him as well." Kurt replied in his thick German accent.

"Thank you Kurt." Hank said with a kind smile, his voice was slightly gruffer in his blue form. "And you! I told you to take it easy and be more careful." Hank said to Pietro but there was no venom in his voice.

"Hey I tried! I ran to mom's house in ten minutes like I promised but the other stuff I couldn't really control." Pietro explained defensively, he winced when he flailed his hand during his speech and his good hand shot up to hold his wounded shoulder.

"What happened to your shoulder?" Hank asked in concern as he reached over to pull Pietro's hand away from the wound.

"Got shot." Pietro answered guiltily. "Don't worry the bullets out, I pulled it out myself...it was a rubber one." He hurried to explain when he saw Hank reaching for his tweezers.

"You pulled it out yourself?! You could have got an infection." Hank berated him worriedly.

"Bigger picture please mom!" Pietro shouted as he waved his hand around his face and shirt to show off his injuries.

Hank growled but Pietro didn't flinch as he knew Hank was just worried about him, he walked outside to see what the hold-up was and Pietro took the opportunity to look around the jet and noticed the scared faces of other mutants, young and old, watching the encounter warily.

"Hey, I'm Pietro, don't worry about Hank he's just worried about me and he's a total softy." Pietro said to them with a kind wave.

"What...What happened to your face mister?" A little girl, no older than 7, asked him with big blue eyes watering in concern.

"Ran into a door. I'm very fast you see...I ran so fast that I crashed straight into a door." Pietro told her using two fingers to imitate him running and his other hand as the door as he clapped his hands together. The other mutants looked at him like they knew he was lying but he wasn't about to tell a child what happened to him, she reminded him too much of Wanda.

"Does it hurt?" She asked as she cautiously took one step closer to him.

"A little but don't worry I'll be fine in no time. What's your name?" Pietro asked her softly.

"Kayley." She told him quietly. "Will I be able to see my momma now?" She asked him worriedly, Pietro's heart broke as he couldn't help but think of Wanda's face the last time he saw her.

"Sure you can. We're gonna get you out of here and then we'll go find your momma I promise." Pietro told her reassuringly.

Kayley ran towards him and threw her hands around his neck as she sobbed into his hair, tears welled up in his eyes in sympathy as he held the crying child and tried to stand himself up but he was holding Kayley with his good arm so trying to stand up with his bad one had been painful.

Hissing as he finally managed to push himself off the ground he walked to the entrance of the jet. "Hey can you guys hurry it up." Pietro shouted out to them as he gestured wildly to the sobbing child when they looked at him.

Charles and Erik had been having a 'heated discussion' about letting Stryker go and the rest of the X-Men were watching the show.

"Kayley, I'm going to put you down for a second and then I'll be right back okay." Pietro told her gently, she clutched his neck tighter and he quietly shushed her. "I promise I'll be back in five seconds, can you count to five for me when I put you down?" Kayley reluctantly nodded.

"You promise you'll come back? I don't know anyone here and I'm scared." The little girl asked him sadly and that's okay, he didn't need his heart anyway as it shattered into millions of tiny pieces when her lip trembled.

"Remember I'm really fast. Five seconds is all I need." Pietro told her softly.

"What if you run into a door again?" Kayley asked worriedly.

Pietro couldn't help but laugh. "If I do, I'll still come back okay munchkin?" He replied, freezing when he realised he had used his old nickname for Wanda, he couldn't wait to see her and his Mom.

"Okay." Kayley said a little more confidently.

"Okay, I'm gonna set you down and you count to five okay?" Pietro told her as he gently eased her down to the ground.

"One." Kayley said and that was all he needed for time to slow down, he grabbed Hank first and put him in his seat by the controls, he was a lot slower than he would have liked to be but he had a promise to keep.

"Two." Could be heard in slow motion as he rushed to grab the rest of the X-Men, Kurt had already began the process of disappearing and Pietro didn't want to risk grabbing him in case he disappeared with him. He grabbed Scott instead and put him in a seat and Jean was placed beside him.

"Three." Next was Ororo and then Raven, Jean's was looking at Kayley in understanding while Scott was looking down at his seat in confusion.

"Four." He debated whether to get Charles or Erik first and decided that Erik would be easier and he could think of how to transfer Charles afterwards, a light glow slowly burning from the engines of the Jet signalled that Hank understood what was happening. Erik was placed in a seat furthest from everyone else.

"F-" Pietro panicked as he ran towards Charles, he noticed then that the chair was slowly lifting off the ground and he turned and saw Jean deep in concentration as she was using her powers to lift Charles' chair. Pietro ran back and lifted Kayley off the ground before sitting down himself as he was exhausted and terrified he would collapse in front of her or drop her.

Breathing heavily, he sank into the chair and watched Charles floating into the entrance, Erik looked sick as he was trying to let the motion sickness pass.

"You really are fast mister." Kayley said happily, Kurt looked at everyone in surprise as he had wanted to go into the Jet to get away from the fighting and everyone seemed to have appeared in the Jet.

"I made you a promise didn't I?" Peter asked her breathlessly, trying to hold back any grunts of pain when his lungs felt like they were burning. "Sorry about that everyone but Kayley really wants to see her mommy and any _discussions_ about this place can be had back at the mansion." Pietro said loud enough for everyone to hear, he looked at Erik and Charles pointedly, the latter looking back at him guiltily.

"I am sorry Kayley. My name is Charles Xavier, I will call your mother as soon as we get back to the mansion, does that sound good to you?" Charles asked her kindly.

"Okay." Kayley mumbled, leaning closer to Pietro. He winced guiltily when he noticed the blood, _his blood_ , getting on the child's grubby shirt.

"Hey munchkin, I'm gonna get you some of Wanda's old clothes before you go home to your mommy is that okay?" Pietro told her quietly, he could feel Erik's gaze on him but he knew he had to look after this child first.

"Okay." Kayley said brightly. "How did you get so fast mister?" She asked curiously.

"I was born that way, it's part of my mutation and that's why my hair is silver but I only started running really fast when I was your age." He answered her fondly, Erik looked over curiously and Pietro met his eyes with a shy grin knowing that Erik wanted to know more about him.

"You were 7 when you started going fast?" She asked, she seemed to relax more around him as she had been scared but Pietro had earned her trust.

"Yeah, I was on my way home from school and as I was crossing the road, a car came at me so fast and I just remember trying to run to get away from it and in a split second I was at my house which was a few blocks away." He said, addressing Kayley and Erik and he felt nostalgia and a little sadness go through him as he remembered telling his mom who just looked terrified as he ran laps around the house.

"I can move water." Kayley whispered quietly to him, looking left and right to make sure no one else could hear.

"That's really cool, also Kayley don't worry, no one here will hurt you because you can move water, we all have powers here." Pietro whispered back to her.

"Really?" She asked as she eyed everyone curiously.

"Yeah, you saw Charles, he can read minds, Jean can too but she can also move things with her mind, Erik can control metal, Kurt can teleport, Scott's got laser eyes, Ororo has these cool weather powers, Raven can turn into anyone and Hank is a big blue teddy bear...don't tell him I said that though, he might maim me." Pietro explained quietly as he pointed to each person when he spoke.

"Peter, you realise I can hear you with my sensitive hearing right?" Hank called to him from the controls.

"What does maim mean?" Kayley asked with a puzzled look.

"Uh...nothing." Pietro replied when he saw Hank glaring at him, promising pain later. "Oh god I'm gonna regret that." Pietro said with a sigh but he smirked and thought _'worth it'_ earning a disapproving look that seemed to amused to be serious from Charles.

"I have a question?" Erik asked him as Pietro and Kayley were sitting closer to him.

"Yeah?" He asked with a worried smile.

"When you were a child, did you ever hurt yourself whilst running?" Erik asked him curiously, Kayley seemed to want to know the answer to this as well as she snuggled into him more.

Pietro's face heated up and he refused to make eye-contact when he finally said. "I may have accidentally ran into a wall...or a tree...or a lamppost once or twice...or several times." He muttered quietly.

"That's really sad, and you ran into a door earlier too so do you still not know how to run fast yet?" Kayley asked sadly, her face full of pity for the wrong reasons, Erik gave Pietro a smirk as he struggled to think of a way to explain himself.

"Don't you worry about me I know how to run fast, that was just an accident." Pietro explained fondly.

"Everybody seatbelts on, we're gonna be landing soon." Hank called out as everyone rushed to strap themselves in.

Pietro quickly fastened the seatbelt around both him and Kayley, he couldn't wait to see his mom and Wanda but he realised he must look pretty bad and he didn't want them to see him like this.

"Hey Professor?" Pietro called quietly.

"Yes Pietro?" Charles asked, careful to use his real name now.

"Could you stall my mom or something, I need to shower so I don't look so bad when she sees me." Pietro asked worriedly.

"I'll do what I can." Charles told him after deliberating on what he should do for a few seconds. "But it will look really bad when your mother wants to see you straight away and you are missing."

"Tell her that I'm in the shower and that my clothes got really dirty. Thank god I've been staying here for a few weeks because I have clean clothes here." Pietro said with a relieved tone.

"What about me?" Kayley asked worriedly, her bottom lip jutted out in a pout.

"Don't worry, you can stay here with Charles until I get back or you can talk to my mom and my sister or you can sit in my room until I get back from the shower?" Pietro told her reassuringly.

"Can I stay in your room? I wanna see your mommy too though." Kayley said anxiously.

"Tell you what, when we get off this jet, I'll run with you to my room and then I'll go get showered and Charles can tell my mom to come to you." He told her warmly.

Kayley nodded enthusiastically and cuddled into him, she seemed exhausted but the threat of being at Stryker's base probably kept her awake.

"You're so whipped Maximoff." Raven said with a smirk when she noticed Kayley starting to dose off.

"Shut up, I have a little sister you know?" Pietro retorted with a blush.

"And I'm sure you fell for those eyes every time." Raven chuckled as the Jet landed and the door opened.

Pietro ignored her and took off the seatbelt, he held Kayley closer to him as he ran as fast as he could to his room and gently set the dosing child onto his bed and pulled the blankets over her. He grabbed some clean clothes and a towel before running into the bathroom and locking the door.

He took a deep breath before looking at himself in the mirror and he nearly shouted in shock as he took it all in. His right eye had almost swollen shut and had turned black, his left cheek was swollen and there was blood all over his shirt and jeans, along with rips and tears in his clothes. He quickly undressed and looked at the cuts on his arms Stryker had made for information, and possible experimentation and he shut his eyes as the images threatened to come back into his mind.

He shook his head and stepped into the shower, he knew all he would need is sleep and some time to sort out his thoughts before he would be completely fine again but Pietro knew he would probably never be sure if his mother and sister were safe out of his sight again.

^/^

Part of Erik regretted not killing Stryker when he had the chance but he didn't want Peter...no _Pietro_ to hate him and view him as the monster Magda had said he was. Charles and Erik had been arguing about him going back for Stryker when Pietro had intervened for the sake of the young girl who they had rescued and a part of Erik was grateful to Charles for stalling him.

"Where is he?!" Magda shouted as she ran towards them, Wanda hot on her heels as they looked frantically between the rescued mutants.

"I assure you he is here and safe, a young girl we rescued took a shine to him and fell asleep on the jet, he took her up to his room and is in the shower now if you'd like to wait with the child." Charles rushed to explain to her.

"He's okay right? He's not hurt or anything?" Magda asked worriedly, looking between Erik and Charles.

"He received a few injuries yes but he'll be able to tell you himself." Charles told her reluctantly.

"Raven and I were the ones who saved him but he ended up saving us, he will be fine Magda." Erik told her quietly, her eyes burned into his threateningly.

"He better be. Let's go Wanda, we'll wait in his room." Magda said to her daughter as they headed towards Pietro's room.

"The little girl's name is Kayley." Charles called out to her retreating back. "Well that could have gone better." Charles said to Erik with a sigh.

"She's his mother; she's just worried about him." Erik replied quietly, knowing exactly how she felt.

Charles turned to the remaining rescued mutants who had been watching their interactions curiously.

"Hello, first and foremost my name is Charles Xavier, this is my school for the gifted. In other words, this place is a safe haven for mutants and also a school to help mutants learn to control their powers. I know many of you are eager to contact your families and you may do so whenever you like but also know that if you would like to, you're all more than welcome to stay. If anyone has any injuries I urge that you see Hank in his lab over there." Charles informed them while gesturing towards Hank's office. "If you would like to know where the kitchen is to get something to eat or if you would like to rest, Jean and Scott can give you a tour and bring you to the guest bedrooms." He added with a kind smile.

"Can I call my family please?" A young woman asked him worriedly, a few anxious nods from the rest of the mutants followed.

"Of course you can, there is a telephone in my office and one in the kitchen. Another thing to note is that if you do decide to go home, I would suggest that you would, at the very least, move house. We've deleted all evidence of you off their database and I was able to remove the memories of you from most of the soldiers but I can't guarantee that you'll be safe back where you were. I will give you all my card so that if you do decide to go home and you wish to come back or something is happening to you and you need our help, you can call at anytime." Charles explained warmly.

"Thank you for helping us." A man who looked like he was in his thirties said gratefully.

"You're very welcome." Charles replied, the rest of the X-Men nodded happily and Hank walked out of his lab a lot less blue than before.

"Hank, could you please take a look at any injuries?" Charles asked him before Hank could walk too far away.

"Sure, no problem." Hank replied politely. "This way please." Hank addressed the rescued mutants as he walked back into his lab.

Charles sighed in relief when the last mutant entered Hank's lab and he turned to go towards the common area to check on his children.

"Do you think anyone will choose to stay?" Raven asked curiously as they all followed him down the hall.

"Well I would like them to be able to go back to their families if that is their wish but I'd be more than happy with anyone who decided to stay." Charles answered honestly, he smiled happily when they turned the corner and he noticed all the children watching a movie together quietly.

"Hey Professor." The children chorused as he entered the room.

"Hello, I hope you are all feeling well?" Charles said to them, receiving a few nods here and there. "Are you all hungry?" He asked and received more eager nods. "Pizza anyone?" Charles asked with a small smirk as he knew the children would enthusiastically accept the offer.

^/^

Pietro hissed when he dried himself off, the towel irritated his bullet wound, his abdomen was bruised along with cuts to his arms from the scalpel. He sighed worriedly, there was no hiding these injuries from his mother, his face was a big giveaway and he knew his mother would force him to show all of his injuries, she could be scary when she was angry.

He threw on his clean shirt with long sleeves and sweatpants, he needed to get his arm checked by Hank to sew up his shoulder and clean out the wound. Opening the door to his ensuite, he froze at the sight of his mother and sister.

"Mom, Wanda thank god you're okay!" Pietro said in relief, then winced when he realised Kayley was still sound asleep in his bed.

"Peter..." Magda gasped, her hand covering her mouth as she moved slowly towards him, looking him over wildly as she took in the sight of her injured 'child.'

"Your face..." Wanda said worriedly.

"Look I'm okay, I need to get checked out by Hank but I'll be okay." Pietro admitted to them reassuringly, glad he had taken the shower so he didn't look as bad as he had.

"You're not okay Peter!" Magda snapped as she stroked his good cheek, below his black eye.

"Mister Pietro?" Kayley called from the bed tiredly, Magda froze at the name and Pietro blurred to Kayley's side.

"Wassup Munchkin? Were we being too loud?" He asked her quietly, she nodded while tiredly rubbing her eyes. "Sorry we'll be more quiet, go back to sleep. I'm going to leave for a few minutes to get checked out by Hank but I'll be right back I promise." He told her softly.

"Okay, I know you'll come back Mister Pietro." Kayley said with a sleepy smile that tugged at his newly repaired heartstrings.

"Of course, go back to sleep." He told her as he fixed the blankets around her, she nodded and snuggled into his pillow.

"Let's talk outside." Pietro told them without making eye contact as they left the room.

"You told her your name?" Magda asked softly.

"I'm using my name now." Pietro told her quietly.

"Good. I'm sorry I made you feel like you had to hide yourself away Pietro." Magda told him sadly.

"Hey, I'm pretty sure that saved me, especially when human's started taking more notice of us. Wanda, are you okay?" Pietro asked her when he noticed her staring at him, her eyes looked like tears were threatening to fall over and he wouldn't forgive himself if he made her cry.

"You promised everything would be okay. You don't look okay." Wanda said emotionally, her body was trembling as she was trying desperately to hold herself together.

"Come here." Pietro said softly as he pulled her into a hug, he didn't care that it hurt and his shoulder was burning with the pain as she clung to him and cried gently. "Hey, stop that. I'm safe now and you are too." He said with a lump in his throat as his sister cried, Raven was right he really was whipped when it came to his sister, he was such a softy and never could stand to be the cause of his sister's tears.

"I love you Pietro." Wanda cried, rubbing her tears and snots on his shirt and he couldn't even bring himself to care.

"I love you too munchkin." Pietro told her softly, he reached out for his mother and brought her into the hug, knowing she needed it just as much. She clutched her children to her tightly, terrified to let them go in case one of them would be taken again.

"Okay this has been really nice and soppy but I have an appointment with Doctor Hank." Pietro told them, subtly wiping his eyes as he sniffed.

"Pietro! You're bleeding!" Magda gasped, he looked at his shoulder, cursing himself for wearing a grey shirt as it was stained red.

"Aaannnd that's my cue to leave." Pietro told them as he disappeared from sight, he stopped just outside Hank's door to give himself time to catch his breath. The pain had been getting worse and his exhaustion had been catching up to him.

"Are you alright?" Erik asked him and Pietro froze, knowing Erik wouldn't take the sight of his shoulder very well either.

"Yeah...I'm just tired. Promised Hank I'd let him look me over."He answered without turning around.

Erik's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "I take it your shoulder is still bleeding." He said in a tone that said he saw through Pietro's bullshit.

His shoulders slumped in defeat and he turned, the blood had soaked through the sleeve of his shirt and he winced at Erik's frown of concern.

"It looks worse than it is." Pietro rushed to reassure his father.

"I'm not your mother Pietro, I would like you to be honest with me and I would expect you not to sugar-coat things." Erik told him quietly.

"...Okay...I'm in a lot of pain, I'm exhausted, probably gonna suffer psychological damage due to the fact that my brain runs so fast that I could fully dread the hand reaching towards the button and a ten second burst of electricity felt like an hour to me. On the plus side I'll get over the psychological damage faster than others as well but torture is definitely not the way I'd like to go out, knew he would probably kill me if I gave him the information he wanted so I kept making jokes and of course, got hurt more because of it and now I'm on autopilot but like...I need to eat like a million burgers and sleep in a food coma." Pietro said so fast that Erik had to pause for a few seconds to properly process all that he had heard.

"I'm sorry that you had to go through all that." Erik began, Pietro looked down at his feet in shame, knowing he should be better than this, than to let himself freak out about a few hours of torture in front of his father who's had a lifetime of it.

"You've had worse." Pietro replied with a shrug.

"That doesn't matter, there is no shame in being upset and afraid after what you have suffered." Erik told him matter-of-factly. When Pietro still didn't look up, Erik reached forward and patted his good shoulder. "Let's get your wound seen to first and then we'll talk. I'll make you some dinner after if you'd like." Erik added, concerned eyes scanning the injuries on his son.

"Yeah okay." Pietro agreed quietly, he made his way towards Hank's door and was mildly surprised when Erik followed him in.

"Pietro, you should have come here sooner, I need to look at that bullet wound." Hank said as he saw them enter, Pietro smiled fondly in reply as he realised Charles must have told Hank his real name.

"Sorry Hank, I needed to shower before my mom and Wanda could see me, I still look pretty bad but at least not as bad as I did." He explained as he sat himself down on the examination table.

"I get it but still, you could have bled out or something, there's a lot I don't understand about your mutation but look at the amount of blood on your shirt." Hank said worriedly as he gathered some gauze, bandages, antiseptic supplies and a needle and thread.

Erik pulled a stool over to the side of the bed as he wanted to watch over his son's treatment.

"I know but I didn't think it would get this bad." Pietro replied guiltily.

Hank sighed with concern, dutifully ignoring Erik as he pushed his glasses up his face. "Take your shirt off." Hank said as he poured some of the anti-bacterial liquid onto some gauze.

Pietro froze, it wasn't just the bullet wound that would be on display, his bruised abdomen, the torture wounds on his arms and the experimental incisions...

"Are you alright?" Erik asked him with a concerned look.

"Yeah...it's just..." Pietro merely sighed and shook his head as he ripped the shirt off and refused to meet anyone's eyes.

"What are these marks on your arms?!" Hank demanded as he lifted one of Pietro's arms to examine the wounds, his hand was lightly tinged with blue like he was struggling to keep himself 'human.'

"I wouldn't answer the questions." Pietro mumbled in reply.

"What?" Hank asked as he couldn't hear the speedster clearly.

"Hank...just get on with it, there's no need for an interrogation right now." Erik told him, voice shaking with suppressed protective rage.

"Thanks." Pietro said quietly as he looked at Erik with a weak smile.

"This is going to hurt." Hank warned as he rubbed the Gauze over the injuries that littered his arms and then the bullet wound on his shoulder, Pietro hissed in pain and his fists blurred as he tried to keep himself from crying out. Hank moved as quick as possible as he sewed up the bullet wound and covered all his injuries with clean bandages

"Thanks for patching me up Hank." Pietro told him gratefully when the ordeal was over.

"You're welcome but please don't make me patch you up for at least another ten years." Hank replied with an anxious smile.

"I make no promises, what if I stub my toe?" Pietro joked as he pulled on his blood-covered shirt.

Hank looked unimpressed as he packed up his medical supplies, Erik stood and nodded to Hank as he followed his son out of the room.

"Man I'm hungry." Pietro said as his stomach could be heard growling loudly.

"Come on, let's go to the kitchen and I'll make you something." Erik said with an amused smirk.

"Can you even cook?" Pietro asked sceptically as they walked together.

"Surprisingly I can." Erik deadpanned. "You may want to change your shirt though in case someone walks in." He added.

"Oh, right." Pietro agreed and disappeared. Kayley was awake when he ran into the room but he didn't let himself stop, not wanting her to see the blood, as he grabbed a t-shirt and changed in his bathroom.

"Mister Pietro?" Kayley called to him when he walked back into his room.

"Hey, did you sleep well?" Pietro greeted with a small wave.

"Yeah, are your arms sore?" She asked as she noticed the bandages on his arms.

"Nah, Hank made me feel better. Erik's making some food if you'd like to join?" He told her cheerfully.

"Yes, I'm so hungry...When will I be able to see my mommy?" Kayley asked quietly.

Pietro winced at her sad eyes, he'd happily get electrocuted a thousand times before he'd see her lip tremble again.

"We'll go get something to eat and I'll tell Charles to call your mommy." He told her as he held his hand out to help her get out of the bed.

"Okay!" Kayley said happily. When she stood, Pietro's eyes scanned the blood on her shirt and he panicked internally.

"I'm going to give you one of my old t-shirts first, do you think you could change it yourself?" He asked her worriedly, grabbing one of his old Pink Floyd shirts that didn't fit him anymore.

Kayley nodded, taking the proffered shirt and going into the bathroom to change, her trousers were still dirty but he didn't have anything she could wear that wouldn't be too big for her. Pietro had to suppress a laugh as the shirt went to her knees and hung loosely around her neck, he lifted her and ran into the kitchen and set her on a chair at the table.

"Oh my god that smells so good." Pietro exclaimed as he watched Erik frying burgers at the cooker. "Side note, could you make one for Kayley too please?" He added in a quieter voice as he felt like he was taking advantage of Erik's offer.

"Sure." Erik said with an indifferent shrug, he didn't really mind making the little girl some food as she was bound to be hungry and he highly doubted that Stryker fed his prisoners well.

"Thanks, also I'll be right back, gotta tell the Professor to call Kayley's mom." Pietro replied and disappeared. Erik merely shook his head fondly, his son was quickly growing on him as they had seemed to settle on this awkward sort of banter and honesty.

Pietro found Charles in the living room, trying to keep the children calm as they were waiting for their pizza, Magda, Wanda and Raven were there too.

"Hey Professor, you got a minute?" He asked him quietly.

"Sure, what is it?" Charles asked kindly.

"Kayley's in the kitchen with Erik, he's making us burgers." Pietro explained, his eyes dancing happily at the thought of food.

"Okay?" Charles prompted.

"I was wondering if you could call Kayley's mom like as soon as you can because she's killing me with those sad eyes. _I can't_!" Pietro said overdramatically.

"WHIPPED!" Raven coughed out with a smirk.

"I blame Wanda." Pietro just said with a shrug.

"Hey!" Wanda said indignantly.

"Oh come on Wanda, you and I both know you used to put on those sad eyes and lip wobble to either get me into trouble with mom or get me to do things for you." Pietro joked to her.

"It's true." Magda said in an amused tone.

"It's not my fault you're such a softy Pete." Wanda said with a smirk, her shoulders seemed to relax more as she accepted that her brother was safe.

"I'm not a softy, look at me I'm super manly." Pietro said as he flexed his muscles exaggeratedly, he winced slightly when the movement pulled on the cuts on his arms and he subtly tried to cover it up with a yawn.

"You're not fooling anyone." Raven whispered to him and the previous light-hearted atmosphere had been replaced with pitying looks.

"Honestly guys I'm fine." Pietro told them reassuringly. "It's me, if I was that bad I'd be complaining like I was dying." He joked.

Magda looked unconvinced, knowing all too well that he always played off his pain. When he was eight he accidentally ran into a wall and broke his arm, and he pretended it was no big deal for a few hours until he couldn't hold back his tears of pain any longer.

"I've called Kayley's mother and told her, she's making her way here now to see her." Charles explained as he entered the room, no one had noticed him leave when they were joking around.

"Thanks Professor, I'm gonna let her know now." Pietro replied and ran off before anything else could be said.

Kayley was already tucking into a burger when he ran into the kitchen, three burgers sat on a plate beside her and Erik was reading a paper with a cup of coffee on the opposite side.

"Oh my god I've never been so happy in my entire life." Pietro cried, blurring to his seat and lifting a burger to his mouth. He moaned happily when he took the first bite, realising that this was the first thing he had to eat since before he had left the mansion to get his sister. "Thanks, you have no idea what this means to me." He told Erik with watery eyes; Erik merely rolled his eyes and gave him a fond smirk in answer.

"Thank you Mister Erik." Kayley said then, trying to follow Pietro's example.

"You are welcome." Erik told her kindly.

"Hey Kayley, I've got good news." Pietro told her, his voice sounding muffled as he was still wolfing down his burgers.

"Don't talk with your mouth full." Erik told him off before he could stop himself.

"Sorry." Pietro mumbled as he swallowed his bite and smiled at the expectant look on Kayley's face. "Charles called your mommy." He told her happily.

"Really? When can I see her? I miss her." Kayley asked excitedly.

"She's on her way here now." Pietro said softly, as he finished the last of his burgers and his stomach felt less like it was going to eat itself.

"Yay! I'm going to see my mommy again." Kayley cheered, Pietro's heart died a little when he heard those words.

"Of course you are, I made you a promise didn't I?" Pietro told her with a small grin.

"I'm going to wait by the window!" Kayley called and ran out into the hall, Pietro sighed fondly as he sat back in his chair.

"You have a lot of patience for children." Erik observed quietly.

"Yeah well, Wanda always had a way of wrapping me around her little finger and I sort of had to have patience for her." Pietro explained quietly.

"I know all too well." Erik said, his smile dimming as he thought of Nina begging him to read ' _just one more story papa_.'

"Gonna miss the little munchkin when she goes home." Pietro admitted sadly.

"I'm sure she'll wish to see you again." Erik told him comfortingly.

"I hope so, she reminds me so much of Wanda when she was younger." He said quietly, he paused for a few moments and then met Erik's eyes. "What happens now?"

Erik could tell Pietro was no longer talking about Kayley or Wanda. "Whatever you want to happen, I will accept." Erik answered calmly but his eyes were full of nerves as he was afraid that Pietro may decide that he doesn't want a relationship with him.

"I think...I would like to try to get to know you better. I'll admit that there are some things that you've done that aren't cool but I would like to have my father in my life." Pietro said after thinking for a few seconds.

"I understand, I don't expect you to forgive me for the things I have done but I would really like to be in your life Pietro." Erik told his son shakily.

Pietro nodded and gave him a hesitant smile. "Well that's good I guess." He replied.

"Can I hug you?" Erik asked awkwardly, his son gave him a shaky nod and they both stood up and slowly walked towards each other. Erik pulled Pietro into his arms, at first his son's arms were loosely hugging him back before his arms tightened as Pietro swallowed the lump in his throat.

"I'm sorry..." Pietro said, voice thick with the emotions he was trying to hold back.

"What for?" Erik asked in confusion.

"Just for being a big baby right now." He answered quietly as he sniffed.

Erik sighed and held his son firmly before pulling back to look at his face. "You have every right to be upset, honestly I don't know why you feel like you have to hide the fact you are in pain or when you're upset." Erik told him.

"I just don't like letting people know, I can't take the pity and I know other people have it worse than me." Pietro replied with an indifferent shrug.

"No one is pitying you, they're just worried about you." Erik told him in a concerned tone. "It is okay to want help or to let someone in every now and then."

"I guess you're right but there's only so many worried looks I can take today. Think when Kayley's mom comes for her I'm going to sleep for like a week." Pietro said as he tried to stifle a yawn.

"Please do, you look like a small gust of wind will blow you over." Erik told his son, smirking when Pietro scoffed indignantly.

"I'll have you know I'm totally alert right now. Constant Vigilance!" Just as he had shouted this, Kurt appeared behind him and pushed him lightly before disappearing again and appearing at the opposite end of the room giggling slightly at Pietro's shocked face.

"I will end you Wagner!" Pietro shouted as he chased the teleporter around the mansion, Erik chuckled in amusement at his son's antics. After five minutes of the chase, Pietro came back looking even more exhausted than he had as he sighed tiredly.

"I take it you didn't catch him?" Erik asked innocently and he smirked when Pietro threw him a dirty look.

"If I was _able_ to use my full speed I could catch him but I barely have enough energy to keep myself standing." He told his father resentfully.

"I believe you." Erik told him with a shrug which pissed Pietro off more.

"I could." He urged, he walked out of the room and went over to Kayley who was sitting in front of the window by the front door.

"How far away does my mommy live from here?" Kayley asked when he flopped down beside her.

"I don't know sorry." Pietro replied tiredly. "But she'll be here for you really soon." He added when her shoulders slumped.

"I just really miss her, when I was at that place, he told me I'd never see my mommy again and it was all my fault." She explained, she started crying when she finished and Pietro pulled her into his side.

"Hey, it's not your fault, that guy was an a...he was a very bad man and he was lying to you but you're safe now and he's never going to hurt you again. I promise you that." He told her determinedly.

"You promise?" She sniffed as she looked up at him with wide teary eyes.

"I swear. Charles will be giving your mom his card for this place with his number on it, if anything happens or you're scared about something, you can call here and I'll run as fast I can to help you." He promised her through the lump in his throat.

"Thank you Mister Pietro." Kayley told him as she hugged his side.

"Hey, you don't have to say Mister, you can just call me Pietro or Pete if you find it easier." He told her fondly.

"Okay Pietro, when..." Kayley began before gasping with excitement as she saw the headlights of a car coming up the path.

Pietro knew that the pizza guy was due to come so he used his remaining strength to run up the drive and see who was in the car before running back and closing the door behind him.

' _The pizza has already arrived Pietro, don't worry.'_ Charles rushed to reassure him but it had already been too late, he knew it was Kayley's mom.

"Are you ready to see your mom? She must have driven really fast to get you." Pietro told her cheerfully, he picked the little girl up and ran out to meet her mother as she was getting out of the car.

"Kayley!" The woman cried as she rushed forward to lift her daughter out of his arms.

"Mommy!" She shouted and the woman cradled her daughter to her so tightly that she could have squeezed the life out of the girl but Kayley didn't seem to care.

"Thank you so much for saving her." Her mother said to him, her voice was thick with emotion and her eyes watering reminded him of Kayley's so much that he had to look away for a moment.

"I didn't, I was saved too, she just felt safest with me." Pietro rushed to explain as he didn't want to take the credit. "You should come in and meet everyone." He added with a polite smile as he gestured towards the front door.

"Pietro gave me his shirt because mine got dirty with all this red stuff." Kayley explained to her mother who looked up at him in fear.

"It was all mine, I promise." Pietro rushed explain to calm the woman, she relaxed slightly but looked him over in concern.

"What happened to you? If you don't mind me asking." The woman asked quietly.

"Uh..." Pietro began and he looked at Kayley worriedly.

"He ran into a door mommy. He can run really really fast like I can move water." Kayley explained quickly, her mother looked at him gratefully as she knew he had lied to protect her daughter's innocence.

"Okay that's enough questions, let's go inside and you can talk to the Professor." Pietro said with an uncomfortable laugh before turning to walk inside.

Charles was already in the foyer with Hank at his side, they both smiled at the woman politely as she carried her daughter inside.

"Hello, my name is Charles Xavier and you are?" The Professor asked.

"Tanya." She answered, Kayley was snuggling into her mother happily. "Thank you for saving my daughter from those monsters, she was supposed to be coming home from school on the bus when she went missing." She explained emotionally.

"You are very welcome, we're just glad that Kayley is now safe and returned to you." He replied. "She was the first person we rescued and Hank checked her over as soon as we saw her but there were no injuries apart from some blood samples that were taken from her." Charles said reluctantly, worried that it might freak out her mother.

"Mommy, Pietro said that Hank is a big blue teddy bear." Kayley tried and failed to whisper quietly into her mother's ear, Tanya looked at Hank's very human appearance doubtfully.

Pietro let out a snorted laugh in surprise and immediately received a glare from Hank. "Oh come on Hank, I couldn't help myself." Pietro said defensively, still giggling as he knew Hank couldn't do anything in front of Tanya or Kayley.

"You are welcome to stay for tea if you'd like." Charles told Tanya, ignoring the silent argument of glares behind him.

"What is this place?" Tanya asked after she nodded in agreement.

"This is a school for mutants, not only do we teach the school curriculum, we also help teach young mutants how to use and control their powers." Charles explained for her. "I understand that you yourself are not a mutant." He added.

"No I'm not, her father was but he mostly kept it hidden." Tanya explained. "When he went swimming or anything, gills would appear on his face...it kind of explains why Kayley has a water-based mutation." She continued as she shifted Kayley on her hip.

"That sounds kind of like Darwin's power." Hank informed Charles, his eyes saddened when he thought of his deceased friend.

"Where is her father now?" Charles asked curiously.

"He died in a car accident last year." Tanya said quietly, she pulled Kayley closer to her as she spoke.

"Forgive me for asking, I'm so sorry." Charles told her sadly.

"No it's okay. I'm just so glad I didn't lose her too." She replied.

Pietro felt so sad for the little girl, she looked at him with her head on her mother's shoulder and gave him a small smile.

"Mommy, can I stay with Pietro for a little bit before we leave?" She asked her mother quietly.

"Sure you can sweetie, just don't wonder off too far." Tanya replied as she set the little girl down.

"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on her." Pietro told her reassuringly as he lifted the girl and ran into the living room to check on his mother and sister.

"Hey Mom, Wanda, I'd like you to officially meet Kayley, Kayley this is my mom Magda and this is Wanda, my sister." Pietro introduced them all.

"Hello." Kayley said shyly.

"Hey, little one." Magda said with a cheerful smile and Wanda gave her a small wave.

"Kayley's mom is here, she's talking with the Professor now but they'll be heading home soon." Pietro told them with a grin but his eyes betrayed his exhaustion.

"You should get some rest after then, you look like you need it." Magda told him in concern.

"Thanks." Pietro deadpanned. "Allright kiddos, it's pretty late so you should all be heading to bed now." He added to the other children in the room, there were some groans in reply but they all stood up and left the room to go to their respective bedrooms.

"Mom, I'm going to bed too, I'm kinda tired." Wanda told her mother with a yawn.

"Okay darling, good night." Magda told her daughter as she hugged her.

"Good night Wanda." Pietro told her as he hugged her with one arm as he was balancing Kayley with the other.

"Good night Pete, I love you both so much. Bye Kayley, get home safe okay?" She told them before she too left to go to her room.

"Good night Wanda." Kayley said with a tired wave.

"I'll just go check if Tanya's ready to go then I'll be back to talk okay?" Pietro informed his mother as he knew she wanted to talk to him about their ordeal but couldn't because of Kayley.

"Okay I'll see you soon." Magda told her son before she sat back down on the sofa with her book she had been reading before he came in.

Pietro ran out into the hall to see that Tanya and Charles were there talking quietly.

"Mommy I'm sleepy." Kayley told her mother in a tired voice, reaching out to her mother's arms.

"We'll be heading home soon sweetheart." Tanya told her as she accepted her child.

"So you'll be joining us tomorrow to talk about the school?" Charles asked her politely.

"Yes, I'd like to know that she can go to a school where other kids will accept her if she accidentally used her powers and she'd be in no danger trying to get home from school. I work weekdays so I can't pick her up afterschool and I'm afraid she'd be taken again." Tanya told him worriedly.

"I understand perfectly, would you like to go to school here Kayley?" Charles asked the tired child.

"Yes please...does that mean I get to still see Pietro?" Kayley asked her mother with curious excitement.

Pietro chuckled lightly. "Of course it does munchkin." He told her fondly.

"Yay...Mommy, Pietro told me that if anything happened we could call here and he'll run superfast to come help us." Kayley told Tanya. "But I'm worried that he'll run into a lamppost or a tree if he's running to us." She added quietly but everyone could hear her.

"That was very nice of him." Tanya replied, giving Pietro a grateful look. He looked back sheepishly as he ran his hand through his hair nervously.

"Hey, I told you that I wouldn't run into anything, what happened earlier was an accident." Pietro told her indignantly, poking Kayley in her side and making her giggle.

"Please be more careful," Tanya said in an amused tone. "Anyway, it's getting really late and I promised my mother we'd stay at hers tonight. Grandma's being worried sick about you Kayley." Tanya added, directing her last sentence to her daughter.

"Bye Pietro, bye Professor." Kayley said with a wave and snuggling tiredly into her mother's shoulder.

"Goodbye Kayley, see you tomorrow." Charles said to her fondly.

"Goodbye kiddo." Pietro said warmly.

"We'll be back tomorrow afternoon. Thank you so much again, I can't ever repay you for what you have done for her." Tanya said gratefully and left the mansion to head to her car, Pietro stayed at the door and watched them leave, waving to Kayley when she waved out the window to him.

He headed into the living room when he couldn't see the car anymore and sat beside his mother on the sofa. "Are you okay?" He asked her when she looked up at him.

"I should be asking you that Pietro." Magda told him guiltily.

"It wasn't your fault you know?" He told her honestly.

"It was, I fell for his tricks and I allowed you to walk into a trap. You could have been killed, there's a lot of things that happened to you that you haven't told me." Magda explained, Pietro opened his mouth to say something but she interrupted. "Don't try to deny it Pietro, I know you. You hide a lot of your pain and injuries from me, whether it's for my benefit or your own I don't know but I worry about you, you are my son and I should have protected you better." She said quickly, her eyes welling up with tears.

"Mom stop, please." Pietro said before she could say anything more, he pulled her into a hug and tried to hold back his emotions; the women in his life always had this affect on him. "It wasn't your fault, how were you supposed to know that the guy who asked you out on a date was going to hold a gun to you and Wanda's heads and kidnap me. If anything it was my fault. You and I both know that I was bound to get caught eventually, if not by the cops then by some psycho who likes to kidnap mutants." Pietro explained to in a light-hearted tone, Magda glared at him for his nonchalance.

"It wasn't your fault Pietro. You shouldn't accept these things so easily." She said angrily.

"I don't regret it." Pietro said instantly.

"How can you say that?" Magda said with a gasp as she pointedly looked at the injuries.

"If I wasn't taken, they probably wouldn't have been able to rescue all those other mutants in time before Stryker got bored of them and started killing everybody, Kayley might not even be alive if it wasn't for the fact that I got taken." Pietro told her calmly.

"I understand." Magda began hesitantly. "But look at what they did to you sweetheart, you have bandages all over your arm, your shoulder was bleeding really bad and you're bruised all over." She lamented.

"Mom, I'm fine I swear. I need to sleep and you know I heal faster when I'm asleep. In like a week's time I'll be as good as new." He urged in a reassuring tone.

Magda didn't look convinced but she knew better than to press the matter with him when his mind was made up. "Okay, go get some sleep. I love you so much and I am sorry about everything that happened. I know you say it's not my fault but I need to say it." She said before he could interrupt, she kissed him on the forehead and got up to go to her room. "Goodnight darling." She added when she stopped at the door and turned to look at him.

"Good night mom, I love you too." He told her and watched her go.

Sighing tiredly, he walked out and searched for Erik, he finally found him in the library reading some book in German.

"Hello Pietro, I take it Kayley has went home?" Erik greeted as he walked in.

"Yeah, I sent all the kids to bed too, I'm about to do the same but I thought I'd check in on you first." Pietro explained as he sat down on the armchair across from Erik.

"I am well, I'm just reading some German literature. You should get some rest." Erik told him with a concerned look.

"Yeah, I'm going to now." Pietro replied, he'd been resting his head on his hand with his eyes blinking heavily.

"I'm not going anywhere, at least not right now. I meant what I said when I said I wanted to get to know you." Erik said reassuringly.

"You promise?" Pietro asked, he looked like a lost kid when he met Erik's eyes.

"I swear to it. I'll stay, at least for a few days and after that I'll make sure that I dedicate time for you." Erik told him honestly. "Now please, go to your bed." He pleaded with a kind smile.

"M'kay." Pietro accepted tiredly. He stood up slowly and moved closer to Erik, he laid his hand heavily on his father's shoulder. "Thank you. For coming for me I mean, I know Raven was there too and I'll thank her tomorrow but thank you." He told him gratefully.

"You are my son, yes I only found out that fact today but I would do anything for my family." Erik replied, Pietro only had to look into his father's eyes to know that he was telling the truth and although it should scare him about what _anything_ meant, it didn't.

"Ditto." Pietro added awkwardly, he patted Erik's shoulder once and left the room. He walked towards his bedroom and lay down on his bed. His exhaustion was quickly catching up to him and his brain started to go through images of his day, he was tortured, his family was threatened, he met a little girl who reminded him of his sister, his father came to save him and now knew he was his son.

It was all a bit of shock when he thought about it, he never thought that Erik would actively want to spend time with him or get to know him when he found out. Honestly, Pietro pretty much expected things to go back to the way they were and Erik would resent him and think it was a lie after his wife and daughter had died.

He was happy though, his mother didn't try to talk him out of trying to get to know Erik (and he was expecting her to if he was honest with himself).

As he drifted off to sleep, he allowed himself to think that things could actually work out.

^/^

Epilogue

It's been six months since that terrible day and Pietro woke up feeling like something was _off_. He took a shower and got himself ready for class, he was a teacher now. He taught the younger children maths at the school because he surprisingly had patience for the younger kids.

Magda had joked that he would be better off teaching Gym because at least he'd be wasting energy while he was working but he honestly didn't mind. Today though...today he just wanted to lie in bed and sleep even though he had had enough sleep the night before.

He ran to his class to set up the room and waited quietly for the children to arrive. The children began filing into the room and he had to run around the mansion ten times before the last child sat down because he was so on edge.

Kayley waved at him from her seat near the front when he came back into the room.

"Okay kids, we're going to do the multiplication table today." He told them after taking a deep breath. He walked over to the board and drew out the table before turning around. "Okay Josh, you're up first, we'll do it one at a time okay?" He called to one of the children, allowing them to answer a few of the equations each.

After a few of the children had answered their questions, Pietro felt like panicking. His lungs had constricted and he hid his hands behind his back to stop the children from seeing his hands blur as they shook.

Some children stifled their giggles as they saw the water from his glass slowly rise behind him and splash his hands, he pulled them out from behind his back with a shocked yelp and stared at them in shock. He could only see blood on his hands and before Kayley could say anything to him, he had disappeared out of the room.

A few seconds later, he returned with Jean in front of him, she looked at him in surprise and smiled at the children awkwardly.

"I need you to take the class today, _please_." He told her quietly, Jean's eyebrows frowned in confusion.

"Are you okay Pietro?" She asked worriedly.

"Yeah I'm fine, I just need to get out of here." He told her with a grimace at his hands.

Jean held both of his hands in hers gently. "It's not blood Pietro, it's water." She said softly with soothing eyes.

He nodded shakily. "Thanks." He said before running out of the room, he pulled his goggles down his face and spoke to no one else as he ran out of the house and kept running.

He ran to DC and back within an hour, trying to keep his mind blank as he sped away from whatever that was back there. He collapsed on his hands and knees with exhaustion on the gravel path of the mansion, hoping to any deity out there that no one could see him.

Breathing heavily, he stayed where he was, staring at the ground before he felt hands helping him stand up. He looked up slowly, shocked to see his father standing there and he guessed Jean must have told the Professor to call him.

"Are you alright?" Erik asked him worriedly.

"Yeah I'm fine." He said quietly, refusing to meet his eyes.

"You don't look fine." Erik said irritably. "Pietro, you need to talk to someone. If not to me, then your mother or even Charles, _anyone_ as long as you're talking." He told him seriously.

A heavy silence followed for a few moments as Pietro stared at the ground and Erik worried for a moment that he would dismiss everything and walk off or he would choose not to open up to Erik.

"I could have killed him dad." Pietro said quietly.

*Flashback*

It wasn't the first time he had called Erik that, ever since that day, Erik had made sure that he and his son spent at least one day a week together to hang out and talk as he was always busy re-establishing The Brotherhood. Pietro had always called him Erik until a few weeks ago when Charles had asked them to investigate an attack on some young mutants in New Jersey. The Professor had only trusted the mission with Erik when Pietro had said he would go, sure that the speedster would stop Erik from killing anyone.

They had walked down the street together, Erik was wearing his hat and sunglasses so he wouldn't be recognised and they headed down an empty alleyway where one of the attacks took place.

Pietro had went over to a patch of a redy-brown substance on the ground a few metres away while Erik investigated a broken piece of the wall on the abandoned building when a click could be heard behind Erik's ear. The gun wasn't made of metal and the man holding it had no metal on him otherwise Erik would have sensed his approach.

"Dad!" Pietro shouted when he noticed and the shot was fired before Erik could do anything, Pietro ran as fast as he could, the bullet was way to close but he managed to move it away from Erik before it could hurt him just in time. More men had appeared and Pietro panicked, nearly forgetting to place his hand on Erik's neck as he ran them as far as he could. He tripped and the pair of them went spinning out of control as they rolled on the dirt away from each other, Pietro crashed into a wall as he couldn't stop himself in time.

"Pietro! Are you alright?!" Erik called out to him as he slowly pushed himself off the ground, his neck hurt slightly but he needed to make sure his son was okay first.

"Yeah...I'm good." Pietro called with a groan. "Okay, maybe good's not the best word." He said as he tried to push himself up with sore wrists.

"Thank you but please be more careful." Erik told him, voice thick with concern as he slowly reached over to help Pietro to his feet.

"Don't think I could have been _more_ careful. They could have killed you, the bullet was way too fast. I'm fast but one day I won't be fast enough." Pietro shouted defensively, his wrists blurred with the heavy cloud of anxiety that still hung over him and he paced back and forth to expel some of the excess energy he still had.

"Calm yourself." Erik told him soothingly as he placed his hands on Pietro's shoulders and looked into his eyes. "We are both alive, we're relatively unharmed and we're safe."

Pietro sighed shakily as he tried to regulate his abnormally fast breathing. "Okay, yeah. We might not be soon." He replied as he looked in the direction they had just came and he worried that the men would decide to follow them.

"Whatever happens, we'll handle it. I was careless and should have been more aware of my surroundings so do not blame yourself." Erik told him reassuringly.

"Thanks Dad." Pietro replied automatically and he froze when he thought about what he had said.

"Don't worry, I'm happy to have you call me that." His father said with a proud smile.

*Flashback*

"Are you talking about Stryker?" Erik asked him as his eyes hardened.

Pietro nodded and stared at his hands. "I keep seeing the blood on them." He said anxiously.

Erik sighed worriedly. "It's okay to feel regret or guilt, you were pushed to your limit and acted on instinct, I don't believe you would have killed him Pietro. I don't believe you are capable of killing anyone and I think you are a good person. How long have you been feeling this way?" He asked the speedster.

"Every so often I feel like shit, nightmares sometimes but today, I dunno I just woke up feeling bad and I had to get out of that classroom because I didn't want the kids to see me like that." Pietro explained sadly.

"It will pass, I'm not saying that to make you feel better either but bad things have a way of hitting us when we're down and making us feel like there's no hope left but in time it always gets better. Sometimes we just can't see it but it's true." Erik said comfortingly.

"I know, it just sucks." Pietro said with a tired sigh.

"If you need some time off, you know Charles would give it to you." He told his son.

"Yeah, I just don't want to let the kids down, Kayley really wanted me to teach at least one of her classes. Oh shit Kayley!" Pietro exclaimed. "My hands were shaking earlier and she used her powers to pour water over them because they were behind my back, I'm guessing she knew and wanted me to stop but I ran out of the room when it happened. The water made me feel like there was cold blood on my hands." He added anxiously.

"I'm sure she'll understand, just explain to her that you weren't feeling well and that she shouldn't do that to the teacher in front of the class, no matter how close she is with you." Erik replied calmly.

"Thanks Dad, I...uh...I love you, you know?" Pietro told him hesitantly and his tense shoulders relaxed when he received a happy grin.

"I love you too son." Erik said cheerfully, tears were starting to well up in his eyes and Pietro panicked internally in case he had broken his father but before he could say anything else he was pulled into a tight hug. Erik never ever thought that after Nina and his wife had died that he could ever feel like this again but thanks to his son, the dark emptiness that once filled his chest, no longer felt like it was going to consume him. He'd never be completely healed after that loss and he didn't want to be but his son had made a space for himself in his heart and Erik was glad to be a part of his life.

"I feel like this hug is going on for too long." Pietro tried to joke after a few minutes but he was secretly glad for the hug.

"Pietro?" Erik asked.

"Yeah Dad?" Pietro answered.

"Shut up." His father merely said as he held his son before letting him go and ushering him into the mansion. Even though Pietro was going through some things right now, Erik knew that things were going well between them as they were getting closer and that was all that mattered.


End file.
